Lit-up kids top stars of Manyfest events

Hey there, time traveller!This article was published 12/9/2013 (1434 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANYFEST: At the three-day blast last weekend, the people who will remember it forever are the kids dressed up for Lights on Broadway -- parading up and down in fantasy light costumes on Saturday night. Photographers roamed the area, asking the kids if they could snap the lighted artistry their parents had created for their heads and bodies and bicycles. Manyfest encompassed a wine festival, outdoor movie, food-truck wars, a market garden, street vendors and bands on two stages. Jason Syvixay, leader of strategic initiatives and the Downtown BIZ gang including heavy lifters such as Stefano Grande, Signy Gerrard, Rose Dominguez, Stephanie Voyce, Kristen Lourie, Ed Medgyes and Rick Joyal -- deserve much praise for this end-of-summer grand finale fest. By the way, Syvixay was cycling to the Saturday events he'd help plan when he got hit by a car at Corydon Avenue and Lilac Street, receiving lacerations to his face and losing teeth. ... But he's still smiling!

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Heather Black

Tony Hinchcliffe

LAST CHANCE TONIGHT: Tony 'the Verbal Assassin" Hinchcliffe flew in from L.A. to do a whirlwind week of comedy around Winnipeg, including the Rose & Bee and Boa's Lounge -- with one last show you can catch tonight at Finn's Pub. Hinchcliffe is known for his work at the Comedy Store, the DeathSquad Podcast Network, and Comedy Central's The Burn. The comic spoke to me Wednesday sitting on the back step of his two-storey condo in L.A., looking out over the hills. Though he confesses he slept for three months in his '94 Ford Taurus behind Comedy Central, he's making it now as a top-level comedian and a writer of scathing barbs for Comedy Central roasts. The 29-year-old has already skewered stars such as Charlie Sheen, Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell. Hinchcliffe says he got funny in a hurry, to survive school bullies. In fact, he says he got the crap beaten out of him on the first day of his first year of school and quickly learned to fight back, picking out weaknesses and making deadly jokes. "I was the bullies' worst nightmare." He's known for taking on people in the audience and playing with them, but some guys just can't take a joke. "I had one guy jump right on the stage with me. I decided not to run and to take the punch like a man and go down like a warrior. The guy was really drunk and I only weigh about a buck and quarter." Luckily, security guys swarmed the stage and grabbed the bruiser before he could land his first punch. It's a tough world up there! Hinchcliffe says he drove from Youngstown, Ohio, to L.A. at 22, with nothing but two backpacks. "That car was so slow I called it my Ford Tortoise." Seven years later, his career has taken off -- not a long time to pay dues. Tickets at Finn's, 2nd floor Johnston Terminal at The Forks, are $10 at the door. It's an 8 p.m. show -- get there early if you want a ticket.

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